Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Die Berufene

An extremely strong showing from Mike Carey, who I know from his work on X-Men. The characterizations were very well done for the most part- most of them are quite layered. The worldbuilding was strong, and the reviewers asking questions about motivations and "evolution" clearly didn't pay attention because those things were explained in the text.

Ultimately, a few small things did knock this book down by a star for me. For one, I would have

at least switched the fates of Parks and Gallagher, though I also think you could make an argument for Gallagher's survival being more interesting than his death given the detailed backstory and internal conflict he's given. His interaction with the status quo at the end of the story would have been extremely interesting IMO

Part of this may be because I didn't particularly care for Parks, but this is also because Parks doesn't really have anything interesting going on.

For another, I feel as though

the Hungry children were too easy to corral at the end.

The questions of the long-term viability of Melanie's plan didn't bother me because that's not the point of the story.

Finally, and most glaring IMO,

I feel like Sparks would have encoutnered pregnant hungries if they are able to sexually reproduce. I just have a hard time believing this aspect without a little extra narrative support - especially given how often fatal pregnancy is, and how the fungus wrecks so much of the body and shuts down a lot of its systems. Even mentioning a pregnant hungry in the crowd would have helped. I also can't say I'm a fan of the whole "sex is a human instinct" theme. I expected there to be adult hungries like Melanie that showed up later, if they specified that only the kids were the unique ones earlier I somehow missed it.

Either way, I definitely recommend this even if I feel some elements could have been treated with a bit more care- which is about what I would say about his work on the X-Men, as well.

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reddeddy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

marthadude's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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thegr1mreader's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lamplight's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

Scream what a fantastic ending!!

so as I said before I'm not really a sci fi person... and that proves itself in that a lot of the science-y explanations and more wordy action scenes did not stick any landings in my brain. but luckily the whole novel was not like that!! i actually found it very engaging and for the most part easy to read and understand.

how insanely violent this is was probably one of my least favorite things about it, like damn 🤢 i never knew reading about certain things could make me feel queasy but alas

and finally, the plot and the themes - great, interesting, super well done! i was enjoying myself and ready to give this 3.5 stars but the ending pushed it to 4 for me. everything just Clicked and it ended at once on a sad and hopeful note. beautiful.

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